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REMARKS ON NONACOICUS, 

THE INDIAN NAME OF MAJOR WILLARD'S FARM 
AT GROTON, MASS. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, held May 11, 1893, Dr. Samuee A. Green 
spoke as follows : — 

In the library of the Historical Society there is a copy of 
a book, written in Latin by Joseph Acosta, and published at 
Cologne in the year 1596, which once belonged to Chief 
Justice Samuel Sewall, and bears his autograph signature, 
dated March 9, 1698-9. The volume is entitled " De Natvra 
Novi Orbis," etc., and has been in the possession of the So- 
ciety for more than a century. On a fly-leaf, at the beginning 
of the book, is the following note in Judge Sewall's hand- 
writing : " NunnacOquis signifies an Indian Earthen Pot as 
Hanah Hahatan's Squaw tells me March, 24. 169|:", — 
which throws some light on the meaning of an Indian word. 
I mention the fact, as I am inclined to think that the term is 
identical with or closely allied to Nonacoicus, the Indian name 
of Major Simon Willard's farm at Groton. WilHam Hahatan, 
Hannah's husband, belonged to the Ponkapoag tribe. His 
name is ^sometimes written Ahauton, Nahatan, and even 
Nahaughton. 



As the spelling of all such words by the early settlers was 
phonetic, Nonacoicus has several different forms ; and it is 
easy to see how the one may have been taken from the other, 
or from a similar form. Another variation of the word, as 
given in Sewall's Letter Book (I. 98), is "Nonna Coyacas" ; 
and Nonajcoyicus, Nonecoicus, and Nonacoiacus are also 
found in old manuscripts. 

In the original survey of the farm, returned by Thomas 
Noyes to the General Court at the session beginning on 
October 18, 1659, it is said that the land lies " at the place 
wch is Called by the Indians nanajcoyijcus." From this it 
would seem that the name was given to the neighborhood by 
the red men, and not by the whites. Perhaps earthen pots 
were made in that locality, as fragments of pottery, as well 
as various stone implements, were formerly found there and 
elsewhere throughout the township ; and this fact may have 
given a distinctive name to the place. 

Originally Nonacoicus included the district in Harvard now 
known as the Old Mill, — two miles away from Willard's 
farm, — where Jonas Prescott, of Groton, the grandfather of 
Colonel William Prescott, the American commander at Bunker 
Hill, had his grist-mill. John Prescott, of Lancaster, in his 
will, dated October 8, 1673, and on file in the Middlesex 
County Probate Office at East Cambridge, says in reference 
to his third son Jonas, named above, that " he hath Re- 
ceiued a full Childs portion at nonecoicus in a Corne mill 
and Lands and other goods." After the death of Major 
Willard, Nonacoicus farm passed into the hands of Hezekiah 
Usher, and the deed speaks of the place as " Nonaicoicus 
farme " ; and in Sewall's Diary there are many allusions both 



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to Usher and his wife. Usher's will is dated at Noiiacoicus, 
on August 17, 1689. The judge himself was a member of 
the Third Church of Christ in Boston, now known as the 
" Old South," where he was a constant attendant on Sun- 
days ; and the minister at the time of the writing on the 
fly-leaf, was the Reverend Samuel Willard, a former preacher 
at Groton, and son of the first owner of the farm. All these 
circumstances, trivial in themselves, tend to show that the 
Indian name of the place was familiar to Sewall. The farm 
was situated on the banks of the Nashua River, in a neigh- 
borhood full of Indian traditions and associations. Major 
Willard's house was the first dwelling burned by the savages, 
when the town of Groton was destroyed in the spring of 
1676. 

My friend George J. Burns, Esq., a lawyer of Ayer, who 
has passed his whole life in the neighborhood of Nonacoicus, 
and is withal an accurate antiquary, thinks that the name was 
owing to the natural conformation of the land. The following- 
letter, written by him in answer to one from me, gives a high 
degree of plausibility to his theory in the matter : — 

Atek, Mass., May 10, 1893. 
Hon. Samuel A. Green, 

30 Tremont St., Boston : — 
My dear Dr. Green, — Upon the west side of the Nashua River, 
near the mouth of Nonacoicus Brook, there is a very peculiar natural 
formation that could not have escaped the attention of the Indians ; 
and it was of sufficient importance, both as a landmark, and as a post 
of observation commanding a view up and down the intervale, and 
rising above the floods that periodically inundate the surrounding lands, 
to have received a designation by them. While it is not alone the 
only " earthen pot " in this vicinity, it is just the kind of a formation 
to which such a name would be particularly applicable. 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



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It consists of a promontory about 500 feet in length, varying from 
300 to 500 feet in width, and protruding from the higher lands at the 
east iu a succession of irregular ridges or small hills, which surround or 
enclose various hollows or basins, some of which contain water. Dur- 
ing the last fifteen years I have often visited the place and wondered at 
its physical peculiarities, and I have tried to imagine what impression 
it made on the natives. I consider it the most interesting and curious 
natural feature of the territory called " Nonacoicus," and I am 
strongly of the opinion that it gave rise to the Indian name of this 

neighborhood. 

Yours truly, 

Geo. J. Burns. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Hdlinger 

pH 83 

Mm Run F03.2193 



